Is it hot enough for ya?

This week has been hot and the weekend promises to be hotter.  The weather put a real damper on getting things done. Sprinklers and drip systems have been running full tilt, partially just to keep things cool, and unfortunately these high temperatures have put an end to all of our spring vegetables. The turnips, radishes, broccoli and the last of the lettuce have all gone to flower, making them bitter and inedible. On a better note the first tiny eggplant and peppers are hanging from the plants, I ate a few cherry tomatoes and the slicing tomatoes are starting to ripen.



            This week there was no planting due to the high temps, but I will play catch up over the next week. The last of the new irrigation system was finally installed and all of the straw mulch is now down. I trellised the last planting of tomatoes, as well as the flowers, and built tee-pees for the pole beans.  Weeding is just about finished, though it looks like we need to head back to the beginning and start again. 

The harvest has been really good this week; frisee, lots of onions, beets, fava beans, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, fennel, dill, cilantro, basil and other herbs, the first of the zinnias and celosia for the floral department, beets and swiss chard.  Sorry I don’t have time for more folks, but as I said earlier I am way behind.  Have a good week, and stay hydrated.

June:  The Month of Weeds

            This week is all about weeding.  The straw mulch that I put down this year had a few more seed heads than usual and they are all popping up.  Luckily the weeds pull up easily and they’ve been cleared out we should have very few weed problems the rest of the summer.  June is always the month of weeds.  The temperature, rainfall and time elapsed since the ground prep before planting make the perfect trifecta for weed thriving bliss. All you can do is get on your knees and slog through it. 

Thriving Anise Hyssop

When I first started farming I hated weeding and as “lowest man on the totem pole” you aren’t qualified to do much else.  My first farm manager would hound us to move faster with sayings like “God blessed you with two hands instead of one so that you could weed faster.”

Our very first melon in the hoop house

Now, however, I find that I like it, the work is very Zen and methodical, and I encourage my employees the same way.  You know that you are making your plants happy.  Weeds rob nutrients, water and even sunlight when they get really out of control. When the weeding is finished the garden looks so clean with all of those neat orderly rows of vegetables marching their way to the kitchen table. 

            Besides weeding, I am seeding lima beans, edamame beans, ‘lazy wife greasy beans’ (a southern heirloom delicacy), the 3^rd generation of carrots and haricoverts, more beets, and a new generation of cucumbers to go into the hoop house next month.  We are picking the absolute last of the cherries, as well as basil, squash, squash blossoms cucumbers, fennel, fava beans, beets, swiss chard, other herbs and mini onions. The first currant tomatoes are starting to ripen, though we are still far from a real harvest, and the first planting of haricovert beans are about to start flowering. 

The first couple of ripening current tomatoes

Our cucmbers are big enough for picking

 

German Lunchbox Cukes are slightly sweet and very crisp

Happy weeding to all the gardeners out there.  When it starts to get you down, just think about how much better your plants will feel when it is done, and if you use both hands you will get it done faster!

This week we have a lot going on.  Seeding for the fall has started in the greenhouse with brussel sprouts.  Over the next two weeks we will also seed cauliflower, and broccoli.  They have to be started early because we have such high summer temperatures in Virginia.  The heat slows down the growth rate significantly, and we want to make sure that they have enough time to mature before frost.

In terms of planting; the 3^rd generation of summer squash, 2^nd generation of currant tomatoes, beets, lima beans and the 2^nd generation of sunflowers have all gone in. The dahlias and zinnias have started to bud.

We are still picking cherries, with well over 150 pounds brought in so far.  Bug battles are continuing and a new insect popped up for me this week called the pea thrip, which effects peas and beans.  I think I caught the infestation early enough that they shouldn’t be too much of a problem, though I may need to order some more green lacewings to take care of the last few.

We got our bees for the hoop house so that our melons can get pollinated. 

One of the new honeybees pollinating a melon blossom

Another melon blossom

We had to wait until there were a significant number of flowers on the plant to make sure that they had enough food. So far they are not very happy with their new home, adjusting to temperature etc. but they will calm down in the next few days, and in the meantime, they are working industriously.

The bees ship to us in this box which then converts to a hive.

      This week we are harvesting the last of the peas and kohlrabi, the first of the fava beans and pearl onions, fennel, turnips, broccoli, beets, frisee, lettuce, swiss chard, cucumbers and squash, and last but surely not least, cherries.